In this post, I interview one of my co-authors on the report, Dr. Joanna Wheeler. Wheeler, now based at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), has worked in participatory research for the past twenty years. Her work started in the favelas of Brazil, looking at the linkages between democracy, violence and social change. She notes in the interview, “Violence played a key role in how social change happened, or often didn’t happen.”

After many years working at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), she relocated to Cape Town. Working in Cape Town provided an opportunity for her to engage more deeply with communities and more in a sustained manner than flying in episodically from England.​In the interview we discuss her work with various forms of participatory storytelling and film which have become central to her research practice in recent years. In her 2014 TED talk, Wheeler reflected on the importance of digital storytelling for transforming the narratives about individuals living in marginalized contexts. In this interview she discusses her subsequent expansion of this work to include collective analysis processes of digital stories and group filmmaking.​

Key points from the interview include:

Because participatory video often aggregates many people’s stories, it often fails to create a compelling narrative.

Storytelling enables transformation: the stories are personally transformative for storyteller, and also create the possibility for wider transformation, in the community, politically, etc.

According to Wheeler: “The story is told for the storyteller, not for the audience, and that’s what makes it powerful when we watch it.”

Narrative changes people’s perspectives: 1) It allows the storyteller to change their narrative about who they are, their own perceived identity. 2) It can also reshape the conventional narrative told about a group or community, reframing it on their own terms.

The storytelling process is driven by principles which guide the methodological choices. The process is not directed by a set method or defined series of steps.

These principles guide decision-making in complex, perilous contexts: “You have to turn to the principles because relying on the tools alone won’t help you,” says Wheeler.

Wheeler now uses a multi-layered process in research: digital personal storytelling for transformation, then collective analysis of those stories in which participants are able to see the connections and patterns which link their stories with others from their community or group.

Collective analysis of stories helps people to see the wider systemic processes which are driving the challenges they face.

Based on the collective analysis, the participants then identify the key themes they want to share with others and create a collective narrative which conveys the essential experience of the group.

Unlike individual storytelling, which is very personal and reflective, the collective narrative-- often a film--is a very focused, intentional a tool for bringing attention to and intervening in the current situation in order to improve it.

Relationships and trust are key to these processes. The more sensitive the subject matter, the more trust and the deeper the relationship required. All of which requires time.

Such processes can’t be rushed. Trust between the participants and the facilitators is key, but also building trust in the group is necessary to help them figure out how they are going to function and make decisions as a team when the stories and research are shared publicly.

This layered process of research builds the capacity of participants to not only to envision the alternative future they want to create, but it also heightens their capacity to own and present their ideas in public fora with government and media, without the professional researcher acting as an intermediary for the group. This gives the work even more legitimacy because it is both created and articulated by the participants.

These processes are a space for these community members to reflect and to hone their thinking on the critical issues in their community and to recognize how much they do know about the situation. This is especially difficult to achieve otherwise in contexts of persistent violence and insecurity.

The videos are a tool for participants to put their ideas and experiences directly into the policy dialogue in a way in which they have control over exactly what is said, even if they are not strong public speakers, because they have already scripted and recorded the exact language and narrative that they want to share long before they step onto the stage.

Participation isn’t just about participation in a piece of research; it’s about heightening the skills of the community researchers to participate in civic and political life over the long-term in order to shape their futures for the better, in their own terms.

The clarity of thought and action that participants achieve in participatory research processes is potentially a better indicator of its success than its research output.

Such transformative research practices, because they depend on time, reflection and relationships, do not fit into conventional research timeframes and typical funding cycles.

Looking forward, Joanna is interested in better understanding how community-based, participatory research can equip participants with the sustained political will to create systemic change. What are the mechanisms and processes that build the capacity for change over the long term, not just within a defined research process?

Joanna also raised the possibility of returning to her American roots. “After 20 years of doing this work overseas, I am feeling compelled to bring it back to the US.” We at Empyrean Research would welcome this opportunity to continue our collaboration with Joanna here in our local context, in our communities in Tennessee and across the United States. ​​